Is your iPhone slow after iOS 18 update? Try these fixes

• If your iPhone is slow after iOS 18 update, making a few tweaks in the settings can significantly improve performance.
• Common fixes include restarting your iPhone and updating your apps.
• You can also try to remove unused apps and clear the cache on your iPhone.

Some users have complained that their iPhone has become so slow and so sluggish as to almost be unusable after installing the latest iOS 18 update. But the problem is that there are so many tips and tricks out there, that you can be spending hours on tweaking and optimizing and downloading and be getting very little in return.

So, what are the best ways to speed up iOS 18?

Here’s how I speed up my iPhone running iOS 18.

How to fix slow iPhone on iOS 18

Try the suggestion below in order until your iPhone feel faster and smoother again:

1. Update your apps

Old apps may not run as smoothly or quickly on the iOS 18 without an update. After updating your iPhone to iOS 18, check to s, check to see if you’ve got app updates waiting. Here’s how:

1. Open the App Store app on your iPhone.
2. Tap Your Profile in the upper right of the screen.
3. Tap Update All to update your apps.

2. Stop automatic updates

As with previous versions, iOS 18 runs processes in the background to make your life easier. Apps update themselves in the background, for example, which saves you from having to stare at an ever-increasing number in the badge alert on your App Store icon.

Updating apps in the background, however, is a process that occupies your device’s CPU (not to mention battery). You can disable this feature and update your apps manually via the App Store app. To do so, follow the steps below:

1. Open the Settings app on your iPhone.
2. Scroll down and tap App Store.
3. Tap the toggle switch to turn off App Updates in the Automatic Downloads section.

3. Free up some space

As you continue to use your iPhone, you also accumulate photos, files, and apps, this means your storage eventually fills up. This could potentially slow down your iPhone. For optimal performance, you should have at least 15 percent free space on your iPhone.

1. Open the Settings app on your iPhone.
2. Tap General.
3. Select iPhone Storage. You will see a list of personalized recommendations. You can follow these recommendations to free space.

4. Uninstall unused apps

If you are like most people, you probably download and install apps and only use once. Most of these apps you’ll never use and some of them may run in the background without you knowing, slowing your iPhone down in the process by sucking out memory and resources. It is best to remove them. You can always reinstall them later if you want them again.

You can delete apps on iPhone by tapping and holding until all the apps go into jiggle mode or just tap and hold on the app icon you wish to delete and remove it from the popup menu by choosing Delete app.

5. Get rid of widgets you don’t need

If you have too many Widgets on your Home screen, they can significantly impact your iPhone performance. Luckily, removing them is super easy.

1. Locate press on the Widget you want to remove.
2. Tap on Remove Widget.

6. Stop background app refresh

Some apps are constantly ticking in the background, syncing data and refreshing content. This activity can slow everything down and drastically reduce battery life. For example, your Facebook or Twitter feed will update without you manually updating when you open the app. Helpful, to be sure, but it occupies CPU cycles. To turn it off, followthe steps below:

1. Open the Settings app on your iPhone.
2. Tap General.
3. Select Background App Refresh.
4. Tap the toggle switch off. Or, you can take the a la carte approach and leave Background App Refresh enabled at the top and turn it off for individual apps from the list below.

Now, those apps will sync when you launch them rather than constantly syncing in the background.

7. Reduce transparency and motion effects

Apple give iOS a sense of depth as you tilt your phone or open and close apps. These motion effects generally improve your experience, but not if they result in choppy animations. Your iPhone can run a little faster if you reduce the work the CPU puts into displaying fancy graphics.

Here’s what you can do:

1. Open the Settings app.
2. Tap Accessibility.
3. Tap Display and text size.
4. Toggle Reduce transparency to On. This setting reduces the transparency and blur effects, ostensibly to increase legibility, but it can also serve to speed up performance because it’s one fewer graphics task for your device’s processor to handle.

Now go back to Accessibility menu and tap Motion.
Tap Reduce Motion and tap the toggle switch to turn on Reduce Motion.

Next, tap the toggle switch to turn off Prefer Cross-Fade Transitions.
Finally, you can also toggle off Auto-Play Message Effects, but that’ll take some of the fun out of texting.

8. Limit location services

Location services chew up battery life more than performance, but if your iOS device is draining its battery at a faster clip with iOS 18, it’s time to cut down on the number of apps using your device’s GPS to request your location. iOS gives you more control over how and when apps access your location.

1. Open the Settings app on your iPhone.
2. Tap Privacy & Security.
3. Tap Location Services to adjust the settings for all of your apps that use location services.

9. Clear browsing history

One area where it’s relatively easy to get rid of superfluous files is Safari. This might initially slow down browsing, given that your iPhone will need to cache websites you visit again, but there will probably be a net performance gain in clearing out the junk. Here’s how:

1. Open the Settings app and tap Apps.
2. Tap Safari.
3. Tap Clear History and Website Data.

10. Turn off Low Power Mode

Low Power Mode is an iOS setting that disables some iPhone features to save battery charge when it is low. Your iPhone will ask you if you want to turn on Low Power Mode when your battery drops to 20%, and then again at 10%.

Apple says that Low Power Mode reduces the amount of power that your iPhone is using to make your battery last longer. However, turning on Low Power Mode can cause your iPhone to run slower than normal.

1. Open the Settings app.
2. Tap Battery.
3. Toggle off Low Power Mode.

11. Check your battery health

If your iPhone is extremely slow, it may be the time for changing the battery.

Once batteries pass their peak performance, Apple may remotely throttle your phone’s performance. This keeps it from unexpectedly shutting down because the battery isn’t working properly.

To check the health of your iPhone battery, follow the steps below:

1. Open the Settings app.
2. Tap Battery.
3. Tap Battery Health & Charging. You’ll see your battery’s maximum capacity, as well as options for setting Optimized Battery Charging and Clean Energy Charging. If your iPhone battery’s maximum capacity has dipped to 80% or lower, you’ll see an “Important Battery Message” warning you that your battery has degraded significantly and needs to be replaced or restored by an authorized Apple service provider.

12. Check your Wi-Fi connection

Poor Wifi connection may slow your iPhone down. If you are having trouble connecting your iPhone to a Wi-Fi network, here’s what to do:

• Make sure that your iPhone is not too far from your router.
• Restart everything: Your modem and router. To do that unplug them and wait about one minute and then replug them in. Also please ensure that your Wi-Fi router is running the latest firmware.
• You may want to reset network settings. Please note that this will erase all of your saved network settings such as your Wi-Fi passwords etc. Go to Settings > General > Transfer or Reset iPhone > Reset > Reset Network Settings.
• Try connecting a different Wi-Fi network. Does that impact the performance?

13. Keep your phone from getting too hot or cold

If the interior temperature of your phone exceeds what’s normal and the device overheats, your phone slows down. Move your iPhone to a cooler location and let its temperature adjust.

See also: how to fix iPhone overheating after iOS update issue

Very cold temperatures can also slow your iPhone. If your device runs slowly after being exposed to cold, move it to a warmer location.

14. Reboot

If you have not rebooted your iPhone recently, just reboot it. Restarting your iPhone often fix less serious issues that are slowing down your iPhone’s speed. In fact, restart your iPhone occasionally.

Here is how you can turn off and on your iPhone:

• If you have an iPhone SE (2nd or 3rd generation): Press and hold the power button until you see the red power off slider. Drag the slider from left to right. Wait about a minute. Then press and hold the power button until the Apple logo appears.
• If you have iPhone XR, XS, 11, 12, 13, 14, or iPhone 15: Press and hold the Side and volume up (or down) buttons together until the power off slider appears. Then drag the slider from left to right. Wait for about a minute and then press and hold the Side button until you see the Apple logo.

15. Reset your iPhone

We recommend resetting your handset when troubleshooting to clear out some old data, at the cost of having to re-enter certain passwords and other settings. Check out our guide on how to factory reset an iPhone for full details.

A general reset will likely result in improved performance — just make sure that you back up important files first.

1. Open the Settings app.
2. Tap General.
3. Select Transfer or reset iPhone.
4. Tap Reset.
5. Tap Reset All Settings and follow the onscreen instructions.

A more drastic approach is to go for the full factory reset:

1. Open the Settings app.
2. Tap General.
3. Tap Transfer or Reset iPhone
4. Tap Erase all content and settings and follow the onscreen instructions.

16. Wait for the next iOS update

Bugs do slip through the net, and sometimes all you can do is wait for Apple to fix the problem and roll out a new update.

That said, if you’re iPhone is slow even after installing the upcoming version of iOS 18, I recommend that you contact Apple Support for further help.